


Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

by partialresonance



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Brendol Hux's A+ Parenting, Ficlet, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:00:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24235426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partialresonance/pseuds/partialresonance
Summary: Prompted by the popular casual encounters ad "Alone on Thanksgiving? Mad at your dad?"In which Kylo pretends to be Hux's boyfriend for a free meal, Hux succeeds in pissing off Brendol, and Kylo whisks him away.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 19
Kudos: 83





	Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout and thanks to the Kylux Movie Night discord server for the daily prompts and writing support! <3

As Brendol leads the way around to the side of the house, stomping on their manicured lawn, Hux briefly feels like he’s left his own body. It pilots itself as it trails in his father’s wake away from the happy sounds and smells of the family barbecue swinging well into its fifth hour on the front lawn.

When they’re sufficiently shielded from sight in the shadow of the tall house—colonial style, cream siding, maroon shutters and tiled roof—Brendol rounds on him. Somehow he manages to loom over Hux despite the few inches of height difference. Hux thinks—bizarrely, distantly, not quite having caught up to the flow of current events—that it never really felt like the advantage it should have, to be taller than his father. It’s really just another way he’s failed the livid man in front of him, as if height is the one expectation he shouldn’t have exceeded. 

Hux opens his mouth to say something—maybe to apologize for being tall—but Brendol’s heavy backhanded slap heads that off. Right, Hux thinks numbly, rubbing his jaw. So we’re back to this. Splendid.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Brendol has had a few whiskey-and-cokes but not enough for him to lose all propriety; his voice is a tight whisper. 

“You’ll have to be more specific.” 

Brendol takes a menacing step closer and instinctively Hux ducks his head. Brendol doesn’t hit him again, though; just that weak little _flinch_ was satisfying enough. Hux hates himself for it.

“I’m talking about that fucking oaf you brought along. Where’d you find him, eh? One of your filthy little dens?” He’s talking about a gay bar, Hux realizes. It almost makes him laugh. “I don’t give a fuck what you do on your own time—I’m given up trying to mold you into a decent fucking person—but how _dare_ you parade your degenerate lifestyle in front of my associates? Your own family? How _dare_ you—“

“Hey.”

Both Huxes spin around at the quiet, deep voice of the ‘oaf’ that Hux had found online and, in a pique of delirium or self-destruction or whatever had come over him, had brought to the family gathering to play the part of his admittedly quite degenerate boyfriend.

“Kylo,” Hux takes a step towards the other man, who is unfortunately handsome, really, the ad hadn’t mentioned that. Dark, wavy hair, a long, noble face and expressive eyes, built like a fucking _refrigerator_ too—Hux has always been skinny, he’s probably as thick as one of Kylo’s stupidly massive thighs—and there he’s gone and lost his train of thought again, he’d been about to say something but now he’s just standing there staring at Kylo’s ripped Black Flag T-shirt and wondering if it smells as bad as it looks and wondering why he sort of hopes it does—

“Did he hit you?”

“Huh?” 

“I asked,” Kylo advances on them, his soft eyes suddenly hard, “If he hit you.” 

And Hux lifts a hand to his face as he realizes that yes, Brendol’s backhand must have left a visible mark, he hasn’t been careful about hiding that sort of thing since Hux was a child and there was the danger of child protective services bringing the hammer down on him, but not anymore, no one cares about Hux anymore and his father knows it—

“It’s none of your fucking business.” Brendol sneers at Kylo. “And what do you care? I’m not a simpleton, I know he’s just using you to piss me off. How much is he paying you, eh? Because I’ll fucking triple it if it gets you to piss off and leave right this second.”

But Kylo isn’t looking at Brendol. He’s looking at Hux, Hux can’t figure out why until he realizes that he’s waiting for an answer.

He nods, eyes wide and expression blank, feeling numb all over.

“Yes.”

Without another word, Kylo turns and punches Brendol square on the cheek, his head rocking back from the force of the blow. Brendol yelps in surprise, stumbling back, and when he overcomes the shock his face is as deep a red as the shutters of Hux’s childhood home and he’s sputtering in rage.

But Hux doesn’t hear it, any more of the vitriol spewing from the man who’d terrorized him his whole life, because the man he’d just met is taking his hand and pulling him away, back towards the front lawn.

“I—I—Kylo—“

“Shh,” the man reassures him, and Hux wonders how someone can be so hard _and_ soft at the same time, it doesn’t seem fair, because it’s making him dizzy and he realizes he’s half way towards falling in love with this stranger already, and that’s not great considering the fact that Kylo had only shown up for a free meal and now he’s going to leave forever and none of this is real—except, well, that punch to Brendol’s face was real. 

Hux starts laughing as Kylo tugs him past the party, which is good, because Hux can’t stop laughing, it’s—becoming a problem, really, Hux is trying to keep it in but it almost breaks his chest open and he has to let it out somehow.

They’re in front of Kylo’s stupid van and Kylo slides open the door and pulls Hux inside and shuts it and then everything is dark and quiet except for Hux’s odd hiccuping laughter.

Kylo sits cross-legged in the van, in the space where there had probably once been a row of seats but now there’s nothing other than a colorless rug that’s surely seen better days and an odd number of cushions which Hux is grateful for as he sits across from Kylo and leans back against them. They’re nice. Nicer than leaning against the side of a van should feel.

“It’s okay,” Kylo says, patting his knee. Hux’s vision is blurry as he shakes his head.

“I—this is—you didn’t have to—“

“I know, but I wanted to.” Kylo chuckles. “Your dad always been like that?”

“Like—like what?”

“An abusive prick.”

That sets off another peal of hysterical laughter in Hux, because, well fuck him, it’s true, isn’t it? He’s never heard it put that bluntly, never even dared to think it. He nods, to answer Kylo, because he can’t quite manage to speak. Kylo is surprisingly patient. He doesn’t say anything else, just sits there, rubbing his thumb in nice little circles on Hux’s knee and Hux stares at it, thinking that’s the hand he’d used to—that he’d—

“You _punched_ him,” Hux wheezes. The laughter dies away abruptly then which brings a massive sense of relief to Hux, who catches his breath and wipes at his cheeks. 

“Yeah—maybe I should apologize but, I’m not gonna.”

“No, don’t.” Hux smiles. Kylo smiles back.

“Wanna get out of here?”

“Oh yes. Absolutely.”

Kylo climbs into the driver’s seat and Hux sits beside him, looking determinedly at the thick tangle of beads and dice hanging from the rearview mirror as Kylo starts up the van and drives off. He has no idea where this man is taking him but surely it’s better than where he’s been. And maybe he’s a fool for trusting that soft smile, those dark eyes—but he’s always been a fool, deep down, and he has a good feeling settling low and warm in his gut that trusting Kylo will be one of the better mistakes he’s ever made.


End file.
